Why you should go to YALFest 2018

On the 22nd of April 2018, which is in a couple of weeks, I’m going to YALFest. For those who have no idea what that is, YALFest is a Dutch festival for YA book lovers with international authors that takes place for the third time now. So if you’re not Dutch this blogpost is probably not that interesting for you, sorry. I’ve been to the first two editions of YALFest and had mixed feelings. The first year was fun, but there was a lot that went wrong in my opinion. The second year was a lot better, and I have no doubt that this edition will be even better! So I am very excited to go this year and here’s why:

International authors

In previous years I was able to meet authors like Tahereh Mafi, Ransom Riggs, Stephanie Perkins, Becky Albertalli, David Arnold etc. etc. because of YALFest. This year we have Sara Holland, Tomi Adeyemi, Taran Matharu, Laura Steven, Sarah Pinborough and Kass Morgan. To be honest, I guess these are not the most well-known names. And some are debut authors. So at first, I was a little bit disappointed. But then again, I didn’t really know last year’s authors beforehand and they turned out to be really nice. Also, I’ve now read Everless by Sara Holland, and I love that book so much that I’m really excited to meet her. I hope that when I read the other books that I’ll be even more excited, but I think I will. And then we have Kass Morgan, I’ve already read The 100 (and I’m currently binge-watching the TV show) and I’ve also already met her and interviewed her. But that’s OK because she is super nice. So no, there’s not really a big name this year, but I guess this is a good way to get to know new books and new authors. I’m sure they’ll all be very nice. How cool is it that all of these authors are coming to The Netherlands, right?! And hey, they might be the next big thing…

Fun activities

YALFest is not just about meeting authors and getting your books signed, but there are also some fun activities. There are stands, there’s a silent disco, you can get your portrait drawn and there are multiple masterclasses. I’ve signed up for a bullet journal masterclass which I’m quite excited for.

Cocktail party with the authors

Last year YALFest organised an intimate and informal evening programme, which I liked a lot. It was basically just a party with the authors. I even danced with Veronica Rossi and Donna Freitas. I mean that kinda epic isn’t it?! So I think it’s really nice that they’re doing this again this year. It’s a whole different way of meeting authors.

More YALFest content to come…

So if you’re Dutch and you don’t have a ticket yet, I would strongly recommend you to come. Well I guess, you could also come if you’re not Dutch… Anyhow, I’m really excited for YALFest this year, and of course, I’m going to make content related to the festival. You can already see a button in the sidebar which will take you to all the YALFest content (which is obviously not filled yet). I’m going to try and vlog the day itself, but I’m also going to try and read all the books and review them for you. I’ve got 6 weeks to do that – 6 authors, so 6 books – and 4 books to read. So I really hope I can pull that off because I think it would be nice to have read at least one book of each author.